Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/21

Rh mental in retoring to France any papers or effects whatoever, which may belong, or may have belonged, to their expedition:

"Decrees, farther, that the King be petitioned to give orders for the fitting out of one or more hips, having on board men of cience, naturalits, and draughtmen, and to charge the commanders of the expedition with the twofold miion of earching for M. de la Péroue, agreeable to the documents, intructions, and orders which hall be delivered to them, and of making inquiries relative to the ciences and to commerce, taking every meaure to render this expedition ueful and advantageous to navigation, geography, commerce, and the arts and ciences, independently of their earch for M. de la Péroue, and even after having found him, or obtained intelligence concerning him."



From my earliet years, I had devoted myelf to the cience of natural hitory; and, being per- uaded,